Exploding Ice

So far we've mostly looked at shifts in diatom and chironomid assemblages in the Arctic. Although interesting (I hope), it all might be a bit abstract and... small. So the next few posts are going to focus on changes in the arctic that are slightly more tangible. Firstly I'm going to discuss the treeline; what it is, how it has changed in the past and how it's been changing recently. Then, in the next post, I'll look at a change that is causing concern; the tundra shifting from being a sink of GHGs to a source through the melting of permafrost.

Before that though, here's a great video from the University of Alaska showing the build up of methane in frozen lakes during the winter, with some explosive results!